


Charisma and Comfort

by missema



Category: Seven Kingdoms: The Princess Problem (Visual Novel)
Genre: Comfort, F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2019-02-20 02:45:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,347
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13137456
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/missema/pseuds/missema
Summary: Time on isle is a scarce commodity, and Charisma hates to let any of her walls down around her fellow delegates. Jasper's always there to give her the support she doesn't even know she needs.Written for the 7kpp Secret Santa 2017 as a gift for Omri.





	Charisma and Comfort

She laughed often, but it wasn't always a true laugh. It was more that she wanted people to know she was amused rather than to realize how superficial the amusement was. Charisma left her laugh ringing in the ears of some of her fellow delegates and then opened the door to her own room. She would close it, let the mask slip fully off and be herself, but she didn't dare at this moment. There were a few hours before dinner and unless she was going to nap, there might be callers. It was important to be there to receive callers of any sort, even if they weren't the ones she was hoping for.

Too restless to read and too tired to work on her studies, she decided to just sit. Maybe she'd pen a letter home, though just the thought of that made her mouth turn down into a grimace. Home, Revaire, was a place that had caused too much trouble during the Summit, and in the years leading up to it. She wasn't sick of home, but it had lost of the charm it held for her now that she was away. But the idea of a letter had merit, and she took out a sheaf of parchment anyway, gamely trying to think of one person to whom she could write something truthful. No one came to mind.

Charisma wasn't the type of person who paced while she was thinking. She didn't tap her quill to her mouth, a habit she found disgusting, but one that her late husband indulged. She hated letting people know that she was in fact, thinking, or planning anything, so she'd brought bird watching glasses. They were mostly unnecessary on Vail Isle, for she had a private room that she wasn't expecting when she'd first packed to come here.

It was good that the room was private, because she was very obviously thinking. Her hands were still and no longer writing on the piece of paper laid out before her. Her quill was set aside, cleaned and resting on the blotter, with no chance of ink splattering from the end. She was nearly still herself, save for the quiet measured breathing she employed when trying to organize her thoughts. Charisma had much to think about.

Despite her doubts when she'd arrived, she'd enjoyed Vail Isle and actually made friends. They were coming to the end of these few weeks, and she had feelings she hadn't anticipated. The source of them too, was confounding, not a rich nobleman from Corval or the less than distinguished Duke from Jiyel, but Jasper. While she liked some of the other delegates just fine, it wasn't they who entered her thoughts and refused to leave. The realization had made her all kinds of confused, and more than a little cranky, because it wasn't proper or right, it wasn't the alliance or marriage she'd hoped to make while here. 

And yet, here she was.

As she sat there, thinking, she let her mind wander in the direction it so often strayed without her permission. She closed her eyes against the light coming in through her window and sighed. It would have to be Jasper, wouldn't it? Her heart always ran contrary to her sense.

"Good going me," she whispered sarcastically to the empty room and took a deep breath.

Organizing her mind, of course, escaped her, but thoughts of Jasper didn't.

#

Jasper was so very tired.

These last few weeks had been more than he was anticipating, for all of them but especially the Isle staff. The normally well-mannered and good-tempered people he worked with were all at their wits end, and the summit hadn't even ended yet. There had been too much to deal with, too many problems that no one could have anticipated and were too monstrously big to be ignored. 

He wanted to sleep for a week, but there was still so much to do in general, but he specifically had to keep Charisma safe. However it was possible, either on the isle or off before arriving, she'd attracted the wrong kind of attention and they just kept coming for her. Even here with it's relative isolation, they had proved that she was not beyond their reach, that she was not safe even in this walls.

The worry that he felt weighed on him like a stone on his back. There was so much happening that shouldn't have come to pass. It was like he alone was standing in front of a wave, trying to hold it back. He couldn't decide if he was foolish to think he'd be enough, or short-sighted for not realizing that standing between a wave and the shore is futile. 

He hoped his own efforts weren't futile.

His footsteps made no sound as he walked down the halls. Behind a closed door he heard the low, unmistakable voice of Grand Duke Woodly, muffled though it was, and he paused. After a breath or two, he heard an answering laugh, one that sounded suspiciously familiar, and he wasn't surprised. Jasper let it pass, glad that he would not be the one to chide the Grand Duke for his behavior. That was another complication, but at least he'd expected it. Everyone knew what Woodly was like. The rest of the obstacles that had befallen them were more unexpected.

He walked on, his mind less introspective now and more alert, listening to the surroundings as he continued, but there was nothing else to stop him until he came to Charisma's door. He pushed it fully open, it was ajar slightly, indicating that she was inside and that his hunch was correct. There she sat, at the desk, framed in the golden rays of the sunlight that slanted through the window. Had he not known that the desk was always positioned so, he might have thought she'd moved it so the light could fall just like this. 

She was breathtaking, but of course, Charisma knew that. It was that he knew it too that she appreciated.

Jasper set the cup of tea he'd made her down on the desk, just out of reach of a careless movement, but not too far away.

"Jasper," Charisma said, looking up to smile at him. Despite sitting at her desk to write a letter, he noticed she hadn't written a single word. "Thank you. The tea is appreciated."

"I don't mean to interrupt, Lady Charisma," he lied. He did mean to interrupt, so help him. He'd just come to check on her, to satisfy himself that she was still whole and well.

"Will you sit with me? Just for whatever time you can spare. I'd be glad of the company," she asked. He hesitated only a moment before sitting down on the bed.

"Did you want to talk?" Jasper asked, looking over at Charisma. Her face was still as lovely as ever, but he saw tired shadows under her eyes as she closed them and inhaled the warm scent of her tea.

"No, not tonight. I just didn't want to be alone."

"I understand," he said and sat with her. The silence between them was comforting, full of an ease that he never thought to find with another person. She sipped her tea and he sat there, watching, until his eyes started to close. It might have been five minutes of twenty, but Jasper realized he needed to go to sleep soon, otherwise it was like as not he'd lay down on her bed and not be able to wake.

That would cause Mrs. White to lecture him until she was blue in the face, let alone the things that the Head Butler would say.

When he got up to go, he didn't break the silence, just went to her and put a hand on her shoulder. Charisma covered it with her own. He relished the warmth of their two hands together for just a moment before he took up her empty teacup, and then he slipped away, closing the door behind him as he went.


End file.
